"Welcome to the campus that we love together. Let's younger siblings in the Higher Education environment must be able to adapt because the college environment is different from that in secondary education and even basic education. Lecturers are different from teachers, and faculty staffs are different from employees at the school. Even the learning environment is different," said the Rector of UNY, Prof. Dr. Sumaryanto, M.Kes., AIFO.

"We are meeting to carry out soft skills activities which lately have been directed as human skills because if soft skills, there must be hard skills. Human skills where you learn, how this campus facilitates younger siblings to empathize with others, work hard but do not forget to cooperate in goodness," added the Rector of UNY.

The Rector hopes that the trainees will make the most of the momentum of being accepted at UNY so that later they can graduate quickly, with a high GPA and a low waiting period either by further study or work. "Applicants at UNY each year range from 180,000 applicants, which are accepted by 12,500 to 13,000 students, so you must be grateful to be accepted at UNY. And use this momentum as well as possible by graduating quickly with a high GPA. The waiting period is low, either by continuing further studies to a higher level (master or doctoral degree), or working according to the salary according to the diploma. At least according to the regional minimum wage," said the Rector.

Today's soft skills training, Tuesday (18/7) at the UNY Auditorium, was attended by 1,037 students from the Faculty of Education and Psychology, Faculty of Language, Arts, and Culture, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Faculty of Vocational Studies, who qualified to become UNY students for the 2023/2024 academic year through the National Test-Based Selection.

Secretary of the Directorate of Academic and Student Affairs, Kristiyono, S.H., M.H., when met on the sidelines of the implementation of soft skills, said that student development is an effort made with full awareness, planning, regular, directed, and responsible for developing student attitudes, personality, knowledge, and skills in supporting curricular activities to achieve national education goals.

"One form of effort or development is providing knowledge, skills, and attitudes in cultivating soft skills. Soft skills often refer to emotional intelligence, the ability to interact with others, and the ability to manage oneself. Few people think these are personality traits acquired from birth, but this is not the case; these abilities can also be trained, just like hard skills. Research shows that schools only teach 10% of soft skills, and the rest teach hard skills," said Kristiyono.

At length, Kristiyono elaborated that soft skills are divided into intrapersonal and interpersonal. Intrapersonal skills include self-awareness (self-confidence, self-assessment, trait & preference, emotional awareness) and self skills (improvement, self-control, trustworthiness, time/source management, proactivity, conscience). The interpersonal skills include social awareness (political awareness, developing others, leveraging diversity, service orientation, empathy) and social skills (leadership, influence, communication, conflict management, cooperation, teamwork). With many students, it is not possible to have many face-to-face meetings, so the implementation of soft skills coaching for 2023 is done online through besmart.uny.ac.id.

"UNY students will be equipped with all abilities at every stage to produce pious, independent, and intellectual people," Kristiyono concluded.(Author: Sudaryono, Editor: Prasetyo Noviriyanto, Tj.Lak)